


Got the Universe on Your Side

by Branithar



Series: Zsashos V [3]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alien Sex, Aliens, M/M, Mutual Pining, Recovery, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:00:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28108197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Branithar/pseuds/Branithar
Summary: Ashton can't stop looking at the pretty hybrid human that babysits children at his park and Luke keeps getting nervous trying to talk to the Earth-born human that tends the gardens.
Relationships: Luke Hemmings/Ashton Irwin, Michael Clifford/Calum Hood
Series: Zsashos V [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1464040
Comments: 7
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Ground Control by All Time Low.

Ashton groaned and stretched, a light breeze cooling the sweat on the back of his neck. Tending the park garden was laborious work, but it was _enriching,_ as the gleth running the Soliri sanctuary would say. When Ashton first started to settle in here, he’d spent countless rotations eating and sleeping the time away, revelling in the luxury of being able to do _nothing._ It had been a good feeling, but he’d eventually gotten bored and decided to sign up for some community enrichment. 

On Earth, Ashton hadn’t spent much time with plants. The task of taking care of them was reserved for those who couldn’t work on the surface and Ashton had been trained to be a fighter. Here, anyone was allowed to care for plants as long as they found the work satisfying. 

It was low-stakes, too. If one of Ashton’s plants died, there wasn’t going to be a panic about the loss of a food source, he’d just have to pull it out and plant a new one. A hassle, but he wouldn’t complain. On Earth, fucking up often meant death for someone. Ashton was grateful that his biggest problem in life right now was Viirlukek. 

Viirlukek, or Luke, as he liked to be called, was a pretty hybrid human who visited the park every day with a group of children he helped look after. Ashton had never met a hybrid human before coming here, hadn’t even known that kind of thing was possible. There’d been a lot Ashton hadn’t known about the universe back when he was struggling to survive on Earth, including the fact that there were non-violent ways to take someone’s breath away. 

As Ashton knelt down to clip some dead leaves from a berry bush, he spotted Luke walking into the park with two human children in his arms, another on his shoulders playing with his antennae and about eight more chasing each other around him. Ashton paused to watch him head for the climbing equipment, lowering the kids he was carrying to the ground so they could run the rest of the way themselves. He looked around and noticed Ashton, waving and making his way over. 

Ashton wiped the sweat off his brow, but there wasn’t much he could do about the dirt on his knees as he stood to greet Luke. Hopefully he wouldn’t notice, given that he was over a head taller than Ashton.

“Whatcha doing?” Luke asked, antennae curling lazily. They reminded Ashton of ancient hoofed animals with branched horns he’d seen pictures of on Earth. 

Ashton glanced at the bushes and shrugged. “Clipping leaves.” 

“They look great!” Luke said, scratching at the back of his neck, “You’re really good at that.” 

“Thanks. How are the kids?” 

Luke looked back at them. “Pretty good. Khax wants to learn medicine when they grow up.” 

Ashton grinned. “Might end up taking care of me if my cancer comes back.”

Luke’s smile fell. “Is it…”

“It’s not back,” Ashton assured him quickly, “I had a checkup a few rotations ago, there aren’t any signs of it coming back.”

Luke looked relieved. “Thank fuck. I'd miss seeing you around here if you got sick.” 

Ashton chuckled and looked away. Of course Luke would worry, he cared deeply about everyone he knew. 

“How are Michael and Calum?”

Luke pouted. “Michael keeps remembering embarrassing stuff on purpose.”

Ashton grinned. “On purpose, huh?” 

“Yep.” Luke looked thoughtful. “I think he’s doing some campaigning here soon.” 

“I heard something like that.” Ashton gestured at the berry bushes. “Gotta take extra good care of these so they look nice for it. They should be ripe by then.” 

“Calum’s gonna make the _best_ pies,” Luke sighed dreamily. 

“I’ll have to check out his bakery.” 

Luke’s antennae lifted. “I’ll get him to-” 

“Luke!” A child with huge black eyes and clawed fingers ran to them, looking alarmed. “Shulkath is stuck!”

Luke looked back at the playground, antennae alert. “Shit, I gotta go. See ya.”

“See ya.”

Ashton watched him jog back to the playground to help a child down from the climbing frame, making sure they were okay before setting them down on the ground. As he looked up, Ashton quickly turned away and knelt to clear up the dead leaves and branches he’d been clipping away. 

He risked a look back when he thought it was safe, finding Luke on the ground now, about six giggling children piled on top of him. He smiled and got back to work, pushing his cart of tools on to the next bushes. Luke was far too kind to deserve someone like him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First AO3 update of 2021, woo!

Luke moped into the bakery, spotting Calum immediately but seeing that he was busy right now, intently watching another human cut pastry and occasionally serving customers. He found a seat at an empty table and slumped into it, waiting sadly for Calum to take notice. 

“Talk to that Earth human again?” Calum guessed loudly, “Ashtonfletcher?”

“Yeah,” Luke mumbled. 

“What happened?” 

“He’s too…” Luke gestured vaguely. “ _Badass_ for me.” 

“Really.” 

“He grew up on _Earth,_ he’s pretty much a born rebel and I’m just… a hybrid.” 

That made Calum look up at him, frowning. “Did he say there’s anything wrong with hybrids?” 

“ _No,_ ” Luke groaned, “But _everyone_ wants him, there’s no way he’d pick some dumbass with baby formula stains on all their clothes.” As much as he loved taking care of babies, there was no pretending that he looked even slightly attractive while doing it. 

“You never know,” Calum reasoned, lining a pie tin with pastry, “Maybe it appeals to his paternal instincts.” 

Luke frowned. “Like… he’ll be more attracted to me if he thinks I’d be a good dad?” 

“Or he’ll think you’re a huge baby and feel like he has to protect you.” 

“Shut up.”

Calum grinned. “Why are you so worried, anyway? I don’t remember you struggling to get clients on Zsashos Five.” 

“But I don’t want him to just fuck me, I want him to _like_ me.”

“Your clients liked you,” Calum said with a frown, “They all bought you gifts when you told them we were leaving. Except for the one that got really possessive and tried to kill us over it. But the others were nice, right?”

Luke let his head fall to the table with a thud. “You don’t get it,” he grumbled. 

Calum continued to bake, every now and then handing orders out to people. “We gonna see Mikes after this?”

“ _Yeah._ ” 

Was that even a question? After believing he was dead for so long, how could Luke _not_ want to spend as much time with Michael as possible? 

Once Calum was done for the day, he changed out of his apron and baker hat, boxed a fresh pie for Michael and they set off to the hospital, a sprawl of buildings near the northern entrance to the sanctuary, where all new humans came through. Luke and Calum had left the temporary housing there some rotations ago once they were cleared from quarantine, finding another temporary house deeper in the sanctuary. They planned to move into a three bedroom home once Michael was able to leave the hospital. 

They found Michael in his room, playing a card game that was meant to help him improve his memory. 

“I remembered who Scron was,” Luke greeted in reference to their previous visit, when Michael had agonised over the name, certain it belonged to someone vital to his childhood, “We used to buy kebabs from her.” 

Michael looked confused for a long moment, then lit up. “ _Scron!_ ” 

“Can’t believe you remember her, but not my favourite colour,” Calum pouted, setting the pie on Michael’s bedside table.

“Doctor says it’s easier for cloning tank victims to remember things they associate sensory input with,” Michael recited, packing up his cards, “Those kebabs were fuckin’ amazing.” 

Luke took a seat next to Michael’s bed. “How was physio?”

“Ashtonfletcher came by for my appointment this morning,” Michael told them, “You know he was starving when they found him on Earth? They didn’t even think he’d be able to walk, so they left him unguarded after some surgeries and he escaped and jumped out an airlock.”

Passing Michael a slice of pie on a plate, Calum frowned. “ _Why?_ ”

“He thought they were gonna torture him for information and he didn’t wanna give up his family.” 

Accepting his own plate of pie, Luke groaned. “See? Badass. I’m way too boring for him.” 

“Way outta your orbit,” Michael agreed through a mouthful of pie. 

Calum smacked the back of his head. 

“ _Ow,_ I’m kidding, you cunt.” He swallowed. “He actually said that he likes having a boring life now. Apparently struggling to survive in a toxic wasteland where people are constantly hunting you isn’t as fun as it sounds.” 

“That’s perfect!” Calum gave Luke’s arm a pat. “You’re the most boring motherfucker I know! You’re meant for each other!” 

“Shut up.” 

“Anyway,” Michael continued, “He’s basically done _all_ the physio ‘cause he had to build up all his muscle mass from scratch. At least cloning tanks give you a bunch, even if you never use it.” 

“How are your legs now?” 

Michael flipped up his blanket so they could see the augments connecting his knee to his hip. “It’s still hard to balance, but they don’t get as itchy now.” 

“Are you gonna be able to leave soon?” Luke asked. 

Michael shrugged. “Maybe. I kinda wanna wait until I don’t have physio anymore, otherwise I’ll be here all day with appointments anyway, it’ll just be more effort to get to them on time.” 

Luke pouted. “Okay.” 

“They reckon I’ll be out of the wheelchair for good soon, though. Then we can film all that campaign stuff.” 

“Ashton says the berries at the park will be ripe by then.”

Michael smirked. “Maybe I’ll get to see him feed you a branch of them as he sings you love songs.”

“Shut up.”

**Author's Note:**

> I run tran5rightsos on Tumblr! Feel free to send asks about this or any of my other 5sos fics!


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